By Nate Raymond
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is dropping charges against three former ICAP (LON:IAP) brokers charged in connection with a global investigation into the manipulation of Libor, after they were acquitted earlier this year in a related U.K. trial.
In a filing in Manhattan federal court made public on Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department said it was dropping charges against Darrell Read, Daniel Wilkinson and Colin Goodman given the U.K. trial, in which they were acquitted in January.
A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment beyond what the filing said. Lawyers for the ex-ICAP brokers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The trio were among 16 people the Justice Department had charged in connection with U.S. and European investigations into whether banks attempted to manipulate the rate to benefit their own trading positions.
Investigations have resulted in roughly $9 billion in sanctions worldwide against financial institutions. London-based brokerage firm ICAP in 2013 agreed to pay $87 million to resolve U.S. and British probes.
Read, Wilkinson and Goodman were charged in the United States in 2013 with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud.
The trio were also charged in the United Kingdom, where in London's second trial to arise from the Libor scandal they and three other brokers were cleared of conspiring with convicted trader Tom Hayes to manipulate Libor.
The acquittals marked a major blow to the U.K. Serious Fraud Office, which had in its first trial in 2015 secured the conviction of Hayes, a former UBS AG [UBSAG.UL] and Citigroup Inc (N:C) trader serving an 11-year prison term.
The case is U.S. v. Read et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 13-mj-02224.